Avinash Kaushik is a best-selling author, co-founder of Market Motive Inc. and is the analytics evangelist for Google. Avinash will be in Chicago next week to present the opening keynote at SES Chicago. In preparation for SES, Jessica Lee interviewed Avinash for the company blog and gained some insight on Web analytics straight from the guru of analytics himself.

In this special feature article, we asked three Bruce Clay, Inc. analysts to weigh in on his answers: Scott Fowles, Bradley Leese and Shiel Love, to give their perspectives and takeaways for our SEO Newsletter audience.

Recently I had a conversation with a client here at Bruce Clay, Inc. who came to us with a link development program in place. In reviewing what they were doing we very quickly noticed they had fallen into a very common pitfall, one that we've been seeing with more and more frequency. The client had hired a third party vendor (offshore) whose development program consisted of going to various blogs and forums all over the Internet to place replies with a link back to the pertinent page on the client's site.

Now when stated this simply, it is easy recognize that there are a number of flaws with this plan, not the least of which is the insincerity of it all. While most readers will recognize right off the problems, we have to keep in mind that many companies out there have little to no real understanding of what a poor link is or how low-quality link development can be a waste of time, effort, and money.

Bruce Clay Australia does SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and works on some very large websites, many too large to hand craft or edit each individual page. Many would of these sites have in excess of 100,000 pages indexed and some in excess of a million pages indexed.

While managing millions of pages can be a little like steering a large ship (i.e., you head in a general direction) the user, on average takes a selfish perspective and wants unique, customised content on the pages applicable to their want or need.

Search engines on average deliver a significant percentage of a website's total visitors, and those entering a site from a search engine results page (SERP) can be from different cultural backgrounds, languages and countries. These users have found the site by searching on a relevant search phrase and are usually unforgiving. If you don't look, behave or have what they want, they are gone, but at the same time -- given they are searching -- if they like what they see, the potential for conversion is high.

Conferences and SEO training are an important part of both continuing education for those already in the industry, and fast-track education for those who are ramping up their SEO and Internet marketing efforts in the coming year.

Now more than ever before, we are seeing a shift in the consciousness of businesses across the United States, moving away from traditional marketing and focusing on Internet marketing, with SEO absorbing a huge portion of marketing spend.

The shift in focus is also evident in the growth of SEO-focused topics at conferences tailored to all types of industries, and the general growth of search-specific conferences and events. These conferences show that SEO is going mainstream, and prove that SEO and Internet marketing are at the forefront of any business' survival in these digital times.

Discounts at-a-Glance

Student Loyalty Program for SEOToolSet® Training Discounts
Returning students receive 25 percent off standard and advanced training. Bring a buddy! Those signing up with the returning student (friends, colleagues, etc.) receive $300 off training.

Facebook has been a hot topic for some time, but is once again in the spotlight due to its recent and official launch into the search space through a new partnership. The Facebook-Microsoft (Bing) partnership was announced the second week in October. Its purpose: making search more social.

The first new feature allows someone using Bing for search to see who out of his or her friends on Facebook happens to like a company that shows up on a search results page. So, for example, someone searching for coffee will be able to see if her friend Sally likes any of the companies that come up on the SERP.

The partnership also aims to provide more relevant search results to find people on the 'net. So, if you're looking to connect with someone and you perform a query with that person's name, Bing will use Facebook information to provide only the most relevant results for any given name based on connections within your Facebook network (i.e., those with whom you have mutual friends). These changes are set to begin rolling out in the coming weeks.

At an event held the second week in October to talk about the announcement, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said the partnership with Microsoft was perfect for them because Microsoft is "the underdog" and because of that, says Zuckerberg, "They're in a structural position where they're incentivized to just go all out and innovate."

At the event, Zuckerberg further addressed the concern over the Instant Personalization program. Perhaps it was another way to put the kibosh on additional concerns about the new search features on Bing. Zuckerberg says that Bing cannot use any information about you that exists on your Facebook profile that you don't have set to "public" viewing.

On a side note: there have been additional updates to Facebook functionality that have eyebrows raised once again over privacy with the introduction of new Facebook groups. This feature allows a user to create a group of people within his or her network to share information with, but without the person opting in. The problem is that notifications of people's activity within those groups (e.g., someone says they think a picture of Sally's grandma is adorable) is by default sent to all the members of the group's personal e-mails (there is an option to opt-out).

Returning to the Facebook-Microsoft partnership; it seems to be one step further in making search more personal for the online user. Google has long since been working on the idea of personalized search, but now Bing can get in on the action through this newer concept of social search, and the partnership moves Facebook one step closer to online domination.

Shuffles

It's been a busy month on the Internet.

AOL acquired several companies:

Video syndication company, 5min, for $65 million.

Industry news blog, TechCrunch.

Social software start-up, Thing Labs.

Yahoo continued to lose executives - this time, Hilary Schneider, head of Yahoo's North American Region, David Ko, head of Yahoo's mobile division, and Jimmy Pitaro, Yahoo's media chief -- prompting speculation about CEO Carol Bartz's future.

Bing xRank was officially shut down.

In the search engine marketing industry, 3 Dog Media was acquired by BlueGlass Inc and Todd Friesen accepted a VP position with Performics.

Ev Williams stepped down as Twitter CEO; COO Dick Costolo now takes the top job. Twitter also rolled out a totally new interface which integrates other forms of media more elegantly.

Sound Bytes

If you like what you've read in the SEO Newsletter, there's more Internet marketing expertise where that came from. Check out SEM Synergy every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific on WebmasterRadio.fm.

Bruce Clay and the other hosts discuss industry news, SEO tactics and marketing trends, while expert guests share their insights on methods, best practices and upcoming events. Check out the show schedule below for a look at recent shows and upcoming topics.

Got something to say? Contact the SEM Synergy team by email or on Twitter @SEMSynergy and share your thoughts, comments and questions. You might even hear your question answered on the show.

Shindigs

Join Bruce Clay at SES Chicago, October 18-22. Register using code SPG20CH for 20% off. The conference runs 18-21 with the very popular one-day SEO training course on October 22. Taking any one-day course qualifies you for the Student Loyalty Program.

November 2-4 brings two conferences: BlueGlass conferences land in Florida (get 15% off with code sej15), and in the north, ad:tech New York begins with SEO training with Bruce Clay. If you'd like to attend training, call ad:tech at 415-537-8537 and request the 20% discount, using the code Bruce Clay.

Las Vegas heats up with Pubcon this November 8-11. Receive 10 percent off registration for PubCon Las Vegas 2010 with the discount code rc-2736015.

In the U.S., the newly updated SEOToolSet® standard and advanced training and certification dates are as follows:

Simi Valley, California

November 15-19 (Standard & Advanced)

Bruce Clay Australia will present one more SEO course this year. There are limited seats available for the next 1 Day SEO Training Course:

November 17 in Sydney

Bruce Clay Australia has just announced the date for the next 3 Day SEO Training in Sydney:

3 Day SEO Training in Sydney – April 4th, 5th and 6th, 2011

Attaboys

The tallies are in after Google selected 16 great ideas from a batch of concepts submitted to its 10 to the 100th project from more than 170 countries, and asked the public to vote for the top five. Now, Google is giving $10 million to five organizations with ideas to help solve global problems.
And while we're on the topic of Google, it recently updated its SEO Starter Guide , now with new content and more examples. It promises clearer content for ease of reading, too.

Kudos to Sysomos for being part of the solution to quantify and study social media engagement with its in-depth study of replies and retweets on Twitter.

Google launches display ad campaign -- Google has launched a display ad campaign targeting Australian advertisers with a campaign called “Watch this space”, to educate advertisers’ about its display adverting platform. It marks the first time Google is advertising its display products at scale in Australia.

Google named Aussie’s top brand, again -- Google has once again topped the list of Australia’s favourite brands. Google’s search engine and portal ranked number one and four respectively, with Microsoft and Microsoft Office coming in second and third.

Word on the Wire

Matt Cutts explained how long it takes rich snippets to be implemented (video).

Gmail began offering an option to turn off conversation view.

News came that Google has been testing cars on auto pilot.

Meanwhile, Outspoken Media explained how Google is indexing more results.

Facebook partnered with Bing and is providing the engine with data about its 500 millions users.

Rumors of Microsoft buying Adobe began to circulate.

Australian Internet users embrace online video -- Four out of five Australian Internet users viewed online videos in July, according to research conducted by digital measurement firm comScore. The study found that the average viewer watched more than seven hours of video during the month.

Mobile Internet Usage Doubles -- Mobile internet usage has almost doubled in the past year, with Australians turning to their phones to access the internet even when a computer is available.

If you have any questions or comments on any of the above Internet marketing news items or if you would like to suggest topics for future search engine optimization articles, please contact us at Bruce Clay, Inc.

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